A rendering of the final Pacific Electric Railway’s train foreshadows and introduces Sandra de la Loza’s Pacific Electric Railway Strike of 1903 installation, where she brings together a remade turn-of-the-century float, redacted poem silkscreen prints, and kaleidoscope video footage to address Los Angeles’ complex labor history. De la Loza uncovers the connections between the history of Los Angeles early rail infrastructure, Mexican workers’ demand for racial pay equity, and a faith healer who was exiled from Mexico and settled in Los Angeles. Through her extensive research de la Loza has poignantly recovered historical erasures and imagines a space where the ghosts from the past can guide our journey into the future. 

– courtesy of curator Steve Wong, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, COLA Exhibition 2018